Today’s instant worldwide news gathering and distribution has created a world that was unimaginable to the people who experienced the reality of World War 2 first hand on Tuesday, May 14th, 1940. The large majority of the Dutch nation, occupied or unoccupied, citizen or soldier, relied on scarce and outdated bulletins from general headquarters, carefully and optimistically worded so as to avoid defeatism. So when the news spread that the Royal Family and the Cabinet had left for England, and was dutifully confirmed by the BBC, the blow to Dutch morale was all the more devastating, precisely what General Winkelman had hoped to avoid. The voice of the few cool-headed people defending the logic of the choice made by the country’s leaders, was drowned out by a massive clamor of anger and despair. Discipline in the ranks was on the verge of collapse as the motivation to fight on gave way to the instinct to survive, be it by capitulation or by desertion.
But the General’s next broadcast held on to the spirit of optimism. And while such was of course his intent, he still had his reasons. The area held by the Dutch had again shrunk, but they had retread to a new defensive perimeter in the east of Holland in good order, and given a few days, inundations would make that line very difficult to pass. In the meantime, the Germans had made no progress in the north and still weren’t past Rotterdam in the south. The core of Holland was still intact and at least for now, seemed well protected. Capitulation was not to be considered - not yet.
Faced with the prospect of ongoing Dutch resistance while the greater battle against the combined Belgian, French and British forces in the south was their main strategic priority, the German high command resorted to new and more brutal measures. In an ultimatum directed at the military and civil authorities of Rotterdam, they demanded the surrender of that city within two hours, under the threat of its ultimate destruction. Breaking the stalemate that had existed between the Dutch to the north and the Germans to the south of the broad Nieuwe Waterweg, would finally allow the tanks of the 9th panzer division to continue their intended drive towards the Hague, ending it all.
Confusing communications between the Dutch and the Germans, the Dutch and the Dutch, and the Germans and the Germans followed, and at some point in time a new ultimatum for a later time that day was drafted. But by then, two waves of Heinkel 111 bombers were already approaching from the south and the east. The southern formation turned away after dropping only a few bombs upon spotting red signal flares from the Germans in the south of the city; but no such signal reached the 54 planes that came from the east, and for fifteen minutes, bombs rained on the center of Rotterdam. The destruction was massive, but death toll was limited to under a thousand because many had already fled the area during the preceding days of heavy fighting and shelling.
It was only after the bombing and under the threat of a repeat that evening, that Rotterdam capitulated. And the exact sequence of events that led to the first attack and the reason why it wasn’t cancelled when the local German commander, General Schmidt, was still negotiating a Dutch surrender and no longer wanted the attack to happen when it did - those circumstances have remained controversial ever since.
My mother, in her early teens at the time, saw the northern sky ablaze at more than thirty miles away as the old city went up in flames.
Still, while the psychological impact of the Rotterdam bombing was tremendous, that by itself did not bring about the Dutch surrender. It was only after the threat that the city of Utrecht, now also in the front line, would share Rotterdam’s fate, that the Dutch high command finally gave in. The capitulation order must have been met with relief by some, but there are also many reports of bitter disappointment, especially from those who were in a position that was defensible from a military point of view. General Winkelman personally phoned several commanders to convince them that the fight was over. The Luftwaffe ruled supreme, and what was the point of risking further destruction when the final outcome of the battle seemed inevitable, and prospects of French of British intervention had all but vanished?
One of the soldiers who laid down his arms that day, was my father. He was stationed relatively far to the east, in an area that was still held by the Dutch after the German attack on the Grebbe line had bypassed it to the north, and the drive through Brabant to the south. He never saw a single German soldier during those five days.
